The Unlikely Lady (Playful Brides #3)(16)

Jane snapped her brows together. An honor? To call Upton a friend? Upton? Were they speaking of the same man?

“I’m certain Garrett is looking forward to seeing you,” Cass replied.

There was that coy blush again. It seemed so misplaced on the cheeks of a woman who had to be at least thirty.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Mrs. Langford said, “but I brought my footman, Boris, with me. I couldn’t go anywhere without him. Why, he’s nearly as precious to me as my maid.”

The maid and footman stood several paces behind their mistress. Boris was tall and dark with slightly curly brown hair. He had wide-set dark eyes and a look on his face that was a bit too arrogant for a footman. The maid, however, had bowed her dark head and cast her eyes downward. She reeked with obsequiousness. Jane had never taken such a dislike to servants upon sight. Good heavens, she was up far too early if she was bothered by innocent servants.

“It’s perfectly fine,” Cass’s mother replied graciously. “We’ll be happy to find a place for your footman to sleep and of course your maid is always welcome.”

A bright smile flashed across Mrs. Langford’s face. “You are too kind.”

“I do hope you’ve brought something to wear for the masquerade tomorrow night,” Cass added.

Mrs. Langford’s ever-present smile turned nearly predatory. “Yes, indeed. I’m greatly looking forward to it.”

Cass’s mother went about ordering the butler to take Boris under his wing and show the maid and Mrs. Langford to their rooms. A team of footmen from the Moreland household materialized to unload Mrs. Langford’s trunks from the overburdened carriage.

“Poor horses,” Jane mumbled under her breath.

“What was that, dear?” Lucy asked.

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

Mrs. Langford swept toward the staircase, escorted by the Morelands’ servants. She turned to look over her shoulder at the three ladies still standing in the foyer. “I do hope we shall all become the best of friends this week. Any friend of Mr. Upton’s is a dear, dear friend of mine.”

Jane narrowed her eyes. Who exactly was this Isabella Langford?





CHAPTER TEN

Garrett spent the morning riding out to look at the Moreland lands with Swifdon, Claringdon, and Cass’s brother, Owen Monroe, the future Earl of Moreland.

Like the others, Swifdon was also a large man. A former army captain himself, he was blond with a quick smile and friendly gray eyes that matched his younger sister Daphne’s. Monroe was also tall and blond but with the same deep blue eyes as his sister and a much more rakish air.

They’d already discussed livestock, farming, estate managers, and the like when Swifdon turned toward his future brother-in-law. “Your estate here borders Upbridge Hall?”

“Yes,” Monroe replied. “That’s how Cass and Lucy have been such fast friends all these years. They grew up together.”

Garrett cleared his throat. “If Lucy and Cass became friends because of the proximity of their homes, how did Miss Lowndes end up in their little group? Her father only has a house in London from what I understand.” Now where had that come from? It was a question he’d never bothered to ask the ladies, but suddenly he was quite interested in knowing the answer.

“Ah, this is a story I know,” Claringdon replied.

“Really?” Swifdon said. “I don’t think Cassie’s ever mentioned it to me. I hadn’t thought much of it, honestly.”

“I’ve never known,” Monroe admitted. “I assume they met at a party somewhere.”

The men navigated their mounts along the line of trees that bordered a long meadow.

“Yes,” Claringdon said. “It was at a party. Lucy and Cass’s come-out ball. Miss Lowndes had already been out for a Season.”

Miss Lowndes was a year older than Lucy and Cass? Garrett hadn’t known that.

“They met at a come-out, nothing too special about that.” Monroe shrugged.

“Yes, but it was the way they met that is typical to Lucy. To all of them, really.”

“What happened?” Garrett mentally cursed himself for the note of curiosity in his voice.

“Cass, of course, was the belle of the ball,” Claringdon said.

Swifdon grinned at the mention of his bride. “Of course.”

“She had a queue of suitors lined up to dance with her. Her mother was beside herself with excitement,” Claringdon said.

Owen snorted. “Mother should have saved herself the trouble. If only we’d all known that Cass intended to reject every last one of them because she was pining away for you, Swifdon, waiting for you to return from the war.”

Swifdon’s grin widened. “I can’t help it if I was unforgettable.”

Garrett and Claringdon laughed out loud at that.

“Apparently, in addition to warding off the suitors in whom she had no interest, Cass was preoccupied with Lucy’s lack of success. As you said, Monroe, they were great friends and Cass has a kind heart. She couldn’t abide the fact that Lucy was wilting in the corner with the other wallflowers.”

“Ah, enter Miss Lowndes,” Garrett said with a smirk.

“Yes,” Claringdon replied. “Apparently, Lucy marched over to Jane and demanded to know why she was reading a book in the middle of a ball.”